


Cross-border Cooperation

by Annariel



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Primeval
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 08:51:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3113654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An anomaly opens at S.H.I.E.L.D HQ.  It isn't clear if Lester's presence at a nearby conference is a lucky coincidence or part of a sinister plot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cross-border Cooperation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [knitekat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knitekat/gifts).



> Thanks to fredbassett for beta-reading.
> 
> This feels like it is part of something larger. If I figure out what, I will write more!!

Lester looked down at his cuffs and adjusted the sleeves of his jacket so it was just so. Then he glanced rather pointedly at his watch.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting." The man in front of him was dressed to suggest the dull mindset of an office clerk. He wore a suit but it was off-the-shelf and the cut failed to conceal the gun under his arm. "I'm Agent Coulson, S.H.I.E.L.D."

Lester very much doubted the man was sorry to have kept him waiting. In fact he strongly suspected the wait was a quiet message of superiority.

"Your emergency obviously wasn't that urgent," Lester said drily.

"On the contrary. I'm afraid it was proving a little distracting."

Lester waved a hand generously. "I'm only missing a five star conference meal. Nothing to worry about."

Agent Coulson had the grace to look a little apologetic, but only a little. It was nicely done. He turned away from Lester and activated a projector. Lester wasn't entirely surprised to see an image of an anomaly displayed on the far wall.

"We call them anomalies, but I imagine you know that," Lester said.

"The Home Office was good enough to share some information with us. I imagine they have more though."

"No doubt." Lester knew the Home Office guarded its secrets carefully. 

"This anomaly opened in the entrance of S.H.I.E.L.D HQ approximately four hours ago."

"How inconvenient for you."

Agent Coulson looked over at Lester. Lester allowed an eyebrow to twitch. He'd been co-opted virtually at gunpoint, hustled halfway across the city, and then made to wait half an hour in an attempt to cow him. He wasn't pre-disposed to be particularly helpful.

Agent Coulson didn't respond but looked back at the picture on the wall. "We evacuated the lower levels of the building and I've two of my best agents watching the thing."

"Do you know where it leads?"

"Cretaceous apparently, according to the scientists. They were quite excited."

"I can imagine." 

Lester could imagine. The Cretaceous was one of the nastier periods, as far as he was concerned, but it was complete scientist bait. They loved the really big dinosaurs with plenty of teeth and bad attitude.

"Five minutes ago, this came through."

A new slide popped up. 

"An anklyosaurus. They're pretty dangerous but not actually carnivorous. You should consider yourselves lucky."

"Once the damage is repaired, I'm sure we will."

Lester got tired of the game. "Agent Coulson, I appreciate you bringing me in on this, but I assume S.H.I.E.L.D. believes it has the situation under control or it would have requested that my team be flown over several hours ago. Exactly what do you want me for?"

"We have reason to believe that anomaly was opened deliberately."

Lester sat up at that. "Really?"

"Really. A machine of unknown origin was smuggled into S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to open it and an attempt was made to infiltrate the building during the evacuation."

"What kind of machine?"

Another slide popped up. The device had some similarities to the one Connor and Burton had worked on, but it wasn't the same.

"The Home Office has been less forthcoming about New Dawn than it was about the anomalies."

Lester shook his head. "That's not one of the New Dawn machines, though it might be based on the same principles. If one of my team could look at it..."

"We can't allow it to leave the building."

Lester sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ah, so you do want me to bring my team over."

"Some of them at least."

There was a sudden banging sound in the corridor outside the room and a screeching sound that was familiar to Lester's ears.

"Where exactly have I been brought, if I may ask?" he said.

Coulson glanced towards the door of the room and then looked back at Lester. "S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ was deemed safe enough, the fourth floor at least."

Lester listened to the sound once more. "Unless I am very much mistaken, that is a raptor."

Coulson's face twitched but he activated his headset. "Romanoff, Barton, status update." After a moment he glanced up at Lester. "You would appear to be correct. Several dozen raptors to be not terribly precise."

He moved over to a side wall and pulled open a concealed panel. He typed a combination quickly into a keypad and another panel slid aside to reveal an impressive array of weaponry.

Lester stood up and walked around the conference table to examine the cabinet. "Are all your meeting rooms so well equipped?"

"Only the one's where we meet with delegates of friendly powers." Coulson's tone suggested amusement.

"May I?" Lester reached for a submachine gun.

"Have you used a gun before?"

Lester sighed. "I regret to say that I have twice found myself trapped in my own HQ by creatures considerably more dangerous than a raptor. Weapons training has turned out to be expedient."

Coulson gestured towards the cabinet. "Help yourself. Is there anything useful you can tell me about raptors?"

"Nasty, vicious, a bit slow to realise they are actually dead."

Coulson had helped himself to a small armoury. Lester considered grabbing more guns but decided to stick with the one he had. He checked it over and put a couple of spare magazines in his pockets.

"Where are your people?" he asked.

"On their way up. They were distracted by the anklyosaurus."

A criticism was on the tip of Lester's tongue, but he bit it back. His own people were a little inclined to get distracted by dinosaurs.

There was a scrabbling at the door.

"I suggest we upend the table and use it to create a barrier," said Coulson.

Lester nodded. They quickly turned the table on its side and dragged it to the corner of the room, where they could shelter behind it. The sound obviously alerted the raptors. The door shook with thuds.

"Can they turn door handles?" Coulson asked.

"You shouldn't believe everything you see in the movies."

The door splintered suddenly and a long claw was visible pulled down through the wood. 

"Probably a deinonychus. They are famous for their single hooked claw," said Lester.

"Thank you. I do like to know the names of the things I'm killing."

The door splintered some more. Coulson shouldered a rifle and fired two shots extremely accurately through the gap. They didn't have any obvious effect. 

"I hit that in the head," Coulson said indignantly.

"They are very stupid. It really does take them a while to realise they're dead."

The door shattered and three raptors entered the room.

The next few minutes were hectic and confusing. Coulson switched the rifle for a shotgun, sacrificing the range for stopping power. Lester did his best to keep up a general spread of fire in short bursts as the creatures swarmed through the door and towards the table in the corner. He thought he could hear the sound of gunshots in the corridor but wasn't sure.

The submachine gun clicked empty. Lester quickly changed over the magazine, but even as he did so one of the raptors leaped onto the edge of the upturned table and then down into the space behind. Coulson pulled a knife out of nowhere and jabbed it through the creature's eye. Lester hit it with the butt of his gun for good measure. It got the hint and went down. In the second that took them, two more had crossed the distance. Lester raised his gun again but something flew through the door and embedded itself into the raptor's back. It looked remarkably like an arrow and Lester was still processing that when its tip exploded and splattered deinonychus liberally over the walls. 

A red-haired woman came swiftly through the door carrying a shotgun. She shot the second raptor and chambered another round even as she quickly assessed the room. A man followed her and he was, indeed, carrying a bow and arrow.

There was a moment or two of silence while everyone listened for the sound of more raptors.

"Romanoff, Barton, glad you could make it," Coulson said. Judging from where he looked Lester deduced that the woman was Romanoff and the man was Barton.

The woman frowned slightly. "They made straight for you. Something isn't right."

Lester stepped around the conference table and walked over to one of the fallen deinonychus. It had been the first through the door and he'd spotted the winking red device on its forehead as it had headed towards them. He nudged it with his foot.

"That's a control device. I've seen them before. Someone knew we were in here."

"Which means someone knows that protocol would dictate you be brought here, even with the anomaly on the first floor," Coulson said.

"And also which room you would be brought to," added Romanoff.

"The control device is from the future," Lester said. "I'm afraid you can't rule out someone in the future getting hold of your archives and planning the attack based on those."

At that moment all three of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents raised a hand to their ears. Clearly the were getting information Lester wasn't privy to.

"A woman was just spotted going through the anomaly," Coulson reported.

He thumbed a switch and a new image was projected onto the wall.

"Well that explains a great deal," said Lester looking at the picture. "That woman, lady and gentlemen is Helen Cutter. She has access to future technology, New Dawn's plans and no love of my person."

"She'll have trouble surviving in the Cretaceous," Barton said.

"She's an expert at surviving in pre-history. I had hoped we'd seen the last of her, but it appears she has come back to trouble us again."

Lester wondered what game Helen was playing. It was possible the whole attack happened simple because he was separated from his own team and she knew enough about S.H.I.E.L.D protocols to predict their actions. However it didn't do to rate one's importance too highly. If Helen was turning her interest to S.H.I.E.L.D then Lester would need to begin keeping a wary eye on the shadowy organisation.


End file.
